Letter: Public service? Yeah! Right!

Published Monday, May 19, 2003

Editor: Whatever the issue, it seems to always come down to money. The low salary issues recently raised by St. Augustine Vice Mayor Susan Burk, may have merit. Let's quickly explore where the money is going to come from. I went to my neighbor (we'll call her Robin), a retired social worker with failing health and told her that the city commissioners (except for Bill Lennon, the "lone dissenter,") had voted to give themselves a 50 percent salary increase.

"What do you think of that?" I asked.

"Ben," she mumbled while shaking her head sadly. "Do you know that the property tax rate on my house just went down but my assessment just went up? I think that my bill just went up about 4 percent but I am really not sure. Being on a fixed income, I have to budget everything, and I was going to get new glasses this year so I could read the bill clearly. The property tax took care of that issue. But I guess if the commissioners really need the money, I can afford to send them some more of mine. I'll just eat at the Council on Aging facility more often."

"Good girl," I responded with a smile.

After walking down to one of my other neighbor's homes, I knocked on his door and was delighted to hear the whir of the electric motor on his wheelchair as he zoomed through the house toward the entrance way. My neighbor (we'll call him Fred) is homebound. Serving with the Navy SEALs, he was shot through the neck a few years back while conducting an assault on the international airport in Panama about 10 years ago in Operation Just Cause or some such thing. The wound left him a quadriplegic but he doesn't complain, although once when we had a few too many, he asked me to finish him off. It was just the liquor talking. When he activated the electric door release, I entered the house.

"What up," he responded with a pained smile. Ironically, considering his condition, it hurts his neck when he smiles. What luck, the last place he can feel anything and it's painful.

"Look!" I bellowed while holding up a copy of the newspaper for him to review. "Mayor Gardner wants to increase his salary by 66 percent. What do you think of that?"

Fred ignored my question. "Did you get your property insurance bill this year?" he questioned. "Mine went up 30 percent just this year alone. I called the company and they said that most of it was due to something that Florida state makes us pay called the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund. It doubled this year, and we haven't had a hurricane for the last eight years or so."

"So, what about the mayor getting more money?" I asked again.

Ignoring my question again, Fred continued. "I talked to my brother Phil yesterday on the speaker phone. That voice actuated thing is a blessing," he mused. "Phil said that his health insurance went up 23 percent this year and he is on a group plan with the feds. Can you believe that? Sure am glad that the VA takes care of my sores for free whenever I can catch a ride to the clinic in Gainesville. Did I tell ya that they want to put me in one of those VA homes where I would lose my freedom?"

"Boy, that sucks," I groused while absentmindedly folding my paper. "So, what do you think about giving the commissioners a 50 percent raise and the mayor a 66 percent'er?"

"Well, I guess if they need it, I'll pay it. But I sure wish I could get people into public service jobs like that who didn't need the money so bad. I thought that those jobs were for people who wanted to serve. I didn't realize that they were career positions," he added thoughtfully. Looking up at me hopefully, he continued. "Hey, would you help me change my colostomy bag? The nurse doesn't get here for another couple of hours."